[MD] Distinguishing Levels (Individual level)

[Stephen Hannon]

[Platt]:
Animals don't think, societies don't think, only human individuals
think.

[Steve H]:
Do animals communicate with each other?  Communication implies some
sort of language, whether we understand it or not, and we just argued
how language implies Intellectual Quality in another thread.
Therefore, it seems to hold that animals have Intellectual Quality and
think.

Steve H

On 5/31/06, Gene M <boredandunstable at gmail.com> wrote:
> Platt wrote:
> >
> >
> > Laws are introduced by a single individual and later adopted by others.
> > "Someone has to be first."
>
>
> I agree that intellectual patterns begin in an individual At First. But as
> soon as they stat spreading those ideas, then a collective has that idea. It
> seems clear that Intellect  isn't purely individual. I generally need
> someone else to bounce my ideas off of to really be able to refine them. If
> I were alone, my ideas would be very weak. Intellectual patterns exist in
> both individuals and the collective at once.
>
> Animals don't think, societies don't think, only human individuals
> > think.
>
>
> Well, this strikes me as a silly thing to say. First off, humans are
> animals. So clearly some animals think. Secondly it doesn't seems
> justifiable. There are a lot of other animals that think. Easiest examples
> being primates and dolphins. I recently read an article in which it is
> stated that researchers have discovered that dolphins actually give each
> other names. Certain patterns of sound indicate single individuals in the
> group, that's pretty amazing. That's heading towards showing self-awareness.
> And of course all the primates who know sign language, are able to
> manipulate symbols, they even created a primitive economy where chimps were
> given tokens for tasks completed, which they could exchange at a machine for
> bananas. Some tokens gave more bananas than others, and monkeys soon learned
> to do the jobs that paid the most.
>
> You're assertion that "animals don't think" seems weak to me.
>
> -Gene
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